Yesterday's Todo List
by Crystalkei
Summary: Post ep for Proof. After returning from duty away from the colony, he's angry to hear what's gone down while he was gone. Rom Com with a side of creepy at the very end.


Reynolds handed Pollack the keys to the rover he was returning. He was sore and tired. The beds in the barracks were not like heaven, but they were 10 times better than any cot in Outpost Alpha. His muscles ached as he rolled his shoulders a few times as though that motion might remove the pain. He needed a hot shower and a nap in his own bed. And then Maddy. He hoped she remembered her promise to spend the rest of the day with him.

"Reynolds, what are you still doing here?" a soldier, named Grove, asked as he grabbed the keys to a rover from the crotchety man at the desk.

"Pollack here made me clean out the rover," he explained while he turned up his nose. "One of those scientists puked all over the back of it."

"You made the nerd car sick? Guess he didn't like your fancy driving?" the other man asked with a laugh. Reynolds shook his head but smiled. "I'm surprised you're not over at the Shannon's-" the soldier started but Reynolds cut him off.

"Why? What happened?"

"You haven't heard? I talked to Chambers yesterday, he had brig duty. They've got one of the old scientists in there for trying to murder your girlfriend."

"What?" Reynolds exploded. Pollack, who was sitting at the desk actually jumped in surprise from the man's outburst. Grove tried to explain but it was a waste. Mark had already taken off in a run. Presumably to the Shannon's home.

"I think you buried the lead, there, Grove," Pollack remarked smartly to the soldier.

He was dirty, sore, and now he was angry. Very angry. He banged on the door and looked at his watch. He was thankful for the fact that the Shannon parents would most definitely be at work. He didn't think Jim Shannon would take kindly to his trying to bang down the door, again. With that thought, he opted to just open it.

"Maddy!" He cautiously stepped inside and wondered why she might not be answering the door. A terrible thought crossed his mind. Was she hurt? He didn't have any of the details and what if she was in the hospital. "Maddy," he hollered again, this time more desperately.

As if he hadn't been pounding the door and yelling her name for five minutes, Maddy opened the backdoor and walked in. She saw Mark and instantly smiled, and ran for him. He caught her, hugging her tightly and lifting her up off the ground. The feel of her body relaxed him. She didn't appear to be injured and the way she smiled calmed his panic. He held on for longer than necessary and he felt her giggle against his neck. She pulled back from the crook of his neck and captured his lips. He smiled as she broke away.

"You can put me down now," she said plainly. He cleared his throat, embarrassed a bit, as he returned her feet to the floor.

"So you missed me?" she teased. He nodded and then remembered the reason he came rushing here in the first place. His body tensed and his smile turned straight.

"I leave for four days and you try and get killed, what the hell, Maddy?"

"Are you really yelling at me?" she asked with narrowed eyes, her countenance changing as quickly as his had. He rolled his head around trying to think of some way to reply to that. "Didn't you see my to-do list? Number one on the list for yesterday: try to be murdered by an imposter of your childhood hero. I was just following the list, you know I love a list!"

"I get it, I get it," he said throwing up his hands in hopes that she'd stop. "But I wasn't here. You could have died and I wasn't here. If you had just waited, until today," he tried to explain but Maddy interrupted.

"You must be joking," she said with a scoff. "I'm sorry, do you mind trying to murder me tomorrow? My boyfriend will be back from work then and he'd like to kick your ass."

"Stop," he said suddenly, gently covering her mouth with his hand. She bit the side of his finger and he pulled back, making a mental note to not try that tactic to get her to stop talking, again. He shook his hand and looked at her with a sour face. In return she pursed her lips and pointed her chin as if saying_ serves you right_.

"Tell me what happened, please, I just got back in, I smell, I feel gross, I want a nap, and someone said they had a guy in the brig for trying to kill you. I'm quite sure Pollack is going to hammer me later for not signing all the forms to check the rover back in. Just," he paused and sighed. "Tell me what happened."

As Maddy recounted the story, Mark felt his pulse begin to race and he could hardly control his shaking legs. He wanted to pound this guy. He wanted to lock Maddy in a room so she could never be in danger again, but only one of those options seemed feasible at the moment.

"It's hardly effective to bounce theories off Zoe, she kept talking about vampires, and he must have heard me talking to Dr. Wallace about the DNA samples. I should have been more discreet."

"None of this was your fault," he said more compassionately than he felt.

"It's so funny that you say that." Maddy tilted her head and frowned. "Just a few minutes ago I believe you were…what were you saying? Oh yes, that I should have waited until today to be assaulted!"

"I didn't know the whole story," he said looking at his hands idly. They were itching to hit something. Not just anything of course, but he needed to take care of Maddy first. "But you could have told someone, or you could have waited to continue your little investigation until I got back."

"I have a life, you know," she said strongly. "I'm not some little girl that just sits around waiting for you to show up and entertain me, or take care of me, or protect me. I appreciate the sentiment of it. I do." Maddy reached for his fidgeting hands and entwined her fingers with his. "No one has ever wanted to take care of me, aside from my family, and it's absolutely the most romantic, and heartfelt thing anyone has ever said to me. But you can't be with me every moment of the day and I'm not an invalid or a princess in a tower. And I did get in a good elbow to Pickett's chest before he managed to take me down." She smiled proudly and he couldn't help but feel that same pride.

"So how about some more of those self defense lessons, hm?" he asked.

"Great plan," she said before scooting next to him and laying her head on his shoulder. "You stink," she said but he felt her smile, taking any sting out of the words.

"It was raining when we left this morning, there's probably some prehistoric mildew already growing on his uniform." He pulled his shirt front out a couple of times and watched it glom back to his chest.

"Go take a shower, then we can just lay around and be all mopey together, k? You can be grumpy about not being here when all the action went down and I can tell you all the stories about how I idolized a geologist genius who is now dead, sound like a plan?"

"Yeah, give me an hour and I'll be right here, on this couch," he said before kissing her. She shivered when he pulled away and he smirked. "Maybe we can do some more of that when I get back?"

"I dunno, I've got a lot on my to-do list today. The moping and all…" she tried to say but he interrupted her with another, more intimate kiss. His lips parting more, she sighed before following his lead and letting her tongue dance with his. She pulled away and smiled. "Shower, then more of whatever…" she said breathlessly.

"Right. I'll be back." The corner of his mouth lifted in a half smile as he reluctantly got up from the couch.

"Hey man, you back from Outpost Alpha already? We heard there was bad weather down there, thought you might not be back until tonight," the solider at the desk said as Reynolds walked into the brig.

"Eh, you now bad weather won't stop me, Young." He smiled. "I brought you a sandwich, I passed Barnes on my way and he said he'd be back in a few. Thought I'd help out by doing the brig check for ya." Mark almost felt guilty for the manipulation, almost.

"Awesome, I've got to piss like a race horse," Young said before running through a door to the left.

Mark opened the heavy door that led to the cells and looked at the old man in the cell. He looked mild mannered, if not a bit arrogant. He had a cane. For a split second Reynolds thought maybe he should just walk away, but the man lifted his head and glared at him.

"Oh good, tell me you've brought me something to eat, I haven't had anything for two hours and even then it was disgusting food from the mess hall. How do you thugs eat that stuff?"

Well, that did it. Any mercy Mark had evaporated and he curled his lips in disgust.

"I'm so sorry we didn't feel the need to give you the food to which you're accustomed. I mean, it's not like you killed that girl, you only _attempted_ to do that."

The man studied Mark's face for a moment before speaking. "It would figure I'd try to kill the silly little girl with a sheriff father and a soldier boyfriend."

"Maybe the problem was that you tried to kill anyone at all," he said coolly. "You were gone, but recently we had our first murder. It didn't end well for the asshole that committed it."

"Well then, I'm sure you'll be thrilled to see whatever punishment Commander Taylor doles out." The man seemed to have little regard for whatever was left of his life. That just made the task easier for Mark. He opened the cell door and stepped through. He noticed the bruise on the man's jaw and figured that was Jim Shannon's doing. Mark liked the look of it: purple and blue with some yellowing around the edges. It looked painful.

"I'm not gonna hit you," he growled when the man seemed to shrink a bit at his close proximity. "I'm just going to tell you something." He leaned down to reach the seated man's ear. "I imagine that Taylor is going to let you rot in a pod. I'm all right with that, but if you happen to miss some meals there, or if the climate control malfunctions, or if when you're allowed time out, you never receive it, you just think of me. And then you think of the person you tried to kill yesterday. Take those little moments to reflect on your poor choices. And know that when you die, it's going to be because I killed you. Maybe not because I shot you, or beat the shit out of you, or because I kicked your ass out the gate, but because I have the kind of means to starve you, freeze you, or just make you go crazy in that six by six box."

Mark stood up and looked down on the man; anger seeping from his pores. "You're just a peon," the old man forced out.

"You go ahead and think that," Mark said without blinking before walking out of the room.


End file.
